Tucson’s downtown library has a history that is as long as it is revealing about the changing questions and interests of local government.
The Tucson Public Library started out on the top floor of city hall in 1883; then, with the help of a $25,000 grant from Andrew Carnegie, was moved to Sixth Avenue — the current home of the Children’s Museum.
It was only in May 1990 that the main library moved into its current home at the site of the Jácome’s department store on Stone Avenue, and was named in honor of former Tucson City Manager Joel D. Valdez.
In the past 34 years, as the region has grown in population and the library has passed fully into county control, it has been a consistent downtown landmark.
It has also, for all intents and purposes, slowly been crumbling. Library officials say the main library branch is now in desperate need of repairs. Among them are a need for new elevators, a new roof and a new heating and air conditioning system.
Those realities have forced an existential conversation about the future of the Valdez building, and whether it is the right home for Pima County’s downtown library branch.
County officials said at the March library advisory board meeting that they are committed to a library presence downtown. But whether the county launches extensive repairs of Valdez, moves to the Wells Fargo building across the street or weighs a third option remains unclear.
Here is what we know so far:
Renovations could be triple the cost of moving
The renovation costs are estimated at $86 million on the high end, and $72.4 million on the low, according to construction estimates shared with Arizona Luminaria. The cost to renovate and purchase an alternative building is estimated at $29 million.
Ultimately, the Pima County Board of Supervisors would have to vote on purchasing a new building, or releasing funds for the extensive renovations of Valdez.
The Valdez renovation cost is significantly more than the appraised value of the building, which was $20.5 million in 2022, according to Martyn Klell, the deputy director of project design and construction for Pima County.
At the March meeting, Klell laid out the components of that cost estimate: the original cost of the last library, construction indexes online, the size of the facility and how much IT infrastructure a building requires.
HOW TO GET INVOLVED
- Contact the Pima County Library Advisory Board at Library.Board@pima.gov.
- Contact your Pima County supervisor here.
- Attend a Library Advisory Board meeting, which takes place the first Thursday of every month on the 4th floor of the Valdez library building. Look for an agenda here.
Klell also said future access to construction materials considering the swings of presidential tariffs could impact the cost of the Valdez construction project.
If the plan is to move ahead with renovation, said Klell, it would not be the first time the county renovated a city building.
One challenge library staff face is finding an available downtown building that would meet minimum size requirements, which are about 45,000 square feet.
A memo to County Administrator Jan Lesher from Jeff Teplitsky, the director of a county branch that reviews property acquisitions, names one possibility: the Wells Fargo complex downtown. The memo was shared with the Board of Supervisors Nov. 12, 2024.
The Wells Fargo complex at 150 N. Stone Ave. is 61,274 square feet total, which would exceed the square foot requirement the library is looking for, the memo said.
The building, built by the now-defunct Southern Arizona Bank and Trust in 1957, was the main branch office of Wells Fargo and was closed in 2023, according to the Arizona Daily Star.
If the next move is to buy the building, said Deputy County Administrator Steve Holmes, the county should move quickly while the building is available and at a reasonable price. “We have a really short timeline to move on the purchase of another building,” Holmes said at the March meeting. “That window may not be there in a few months.”
If the library advisory board said they were interested in the idea, the library would then start a community engagement process.
How did it get like this?
In Pima County’s infrastructure plan for 2026 to 2035, the library renovation is listed as one of five library priority projects. The document estimates the deferred maintenance cost for that building at $3.5 million in 2025-2026.
Maintenance is part of the library budget every year, with administrators responsible for setting priorities. “Every year when we do the budget we think about capital improvement projects,” outgoing library director Amber Mathewson told the board. “It’s not that there wasn’t work done, but there were big projects that just, sometimes the priorities were shifting. Maybe the elevators should have been replaced but we had to do three roofs that year.”
The age of the systems also impacts the ongoing need for repairs, Mathewson told Arizona Luminaria. “All the major systems are 35 years old and are becoming increasingly difficult to repair, including the HVAC and elevators.”
Still, Anthony Batchelder, the library deputy director of finance and facilities, assured the board that the library was safe to use despite its maintenance needs: “We are still doing our normal maintenance on the things here so it is generally safe.”
Who is responsible for repairs?
The Valdez library building is owned by the city of Tucson and leased to the county through June 30, 2056.
According to the contract, the library district is responsible for repair and maintenance of the building that includes “custodial care, maintenance, repair and when necessary replacement of the roof, ceiling, light fixtures, heating system, cooling system, panic hardware and cylindrical locks, plumbing, electrical wiring, windows, building systems, termite pest control, and interior flooring and walls.”
The city is responsible for the repair and maintenance of the exterior marble veneer of the Valdez building, the outside plaza as well as the adjoining garage.
During the advisory board meeting, board member Anna Sanchez, who was appointed to the board by Supervisor Adelita Grijalva, said the board recently learned the city would not immediately be putting any money into the renovation. “We got some information saying that the city at this time does not have any plans to put any money into helping with the rehab of this building,” said Sanchez. “The city has not lived up to its part of the MOU [Memorandum of Understanding].”
Tucson officials did not comment on those specific concerns.
City manager’s office Chief of Staff Lane Mandle said big questions about how much Tucson could help with the rebab of the building or the city’s position on the library moving would be discussed at a city council meeting agenda if and when staff placed it on a meeting agenda.
“The county is doing its due diligence engaging with the commission/community. My expectation is that then the county administrator will discuss with the city manager, and then they will each have a discussion with their respective electeds,” Mandle said in an email.
Next steps for Valdez
Library advisory board members say they don’t want to put millions of dollars into a costly renovation, but are uncertain about moving quickly to purchase a new building.
“I just can’t see pouring that much money into a facility that is valued at way under what we’d be spending to rehab it,” Sanchez said.
However, meeting the urgency of the moment would be complicated, said some board members.
“I think it’s going to be difficult to make it feel urgent without it feeling rushed,” said Chair Mariana Padias, who was appointed by county supervisor Matt Heinz.
Other board members said they were disappointed the building needed such extensive repairs.
“Both city and county are saying we deferred maintenance, we broke it, we’re done with it, which is very disappointing” said board member Mary Ann O’Neil, who was also appointed by Heinz.
Library director Mathewson did note that purchasing another building could minimize the disruption to downtown library service.
“If the decision is to purchase the other building, we wouldn’t have to close this library until that one’s ready.”
The library administration does not currently have a position on whether to renovate Valdez or move, Mathewson told Arizona Luminaria.
“At this point, we do not have a proposal, we are providing information on the costs to repair and renovate the current building and the costs to create a smaller downtown location that would still be larger than all the other libraries in the system and provide all current programming, collections and services,” she said.
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